Election officials in Arizona and Missouri this week announced that abortion-rights supporters in their states had gathered enough petition signatures to put proposed amendments enshrining abortion rights into their states’ constitutions, bringing to seven the number of states with abortion votes set for November.
The U.S. Supreme Court removed the nationwide right to abortion with a 2022 ruling, which sparked a national push to have voters decide.
Since the decision, most Republican-controlled states have passed abortion restrictions, including 14 that ban it at every stage of pregnancy. Most Democratic-led states have laws or executive orders to protect access.
Voters in all seven states that have had abortion questions before voters since 2022 — California, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Montana, Ohio and Vermont — have sided with abortion rights supporters.
Missouri voters will decide whether to guarantee a right to abortion with a constitutional amendment that would reverse the state’s near-total ban.
The secretary of state’s office certified Tuesday that an initiative petition received more than enough signatures from registered voters to qualify for the general election. It will need approval from a majority of voters to become enshrined in the state constitution.
The Missouri ballot measure would create a right to abortion until a fetus could likely survive outside the womb without extraordinary medical measures, generally considered around 23 or 24 weeks into pregnancy. The ballot measure would allow abortions after fetal viability if a health care professional determines it’s necessary to protect the life or physical or mental health of the pregnant woman.
Voters in Arizona will decide in November whether to amend the state constitution to add the right to an abortion up to about 24 weeks into pregnancy. The Arizona secretary of state’s office said Monday that it had certified enough signatures to put the measure on the ballot.
Under the proposed amendment, the state would not be able to ban abortion until the fetus is viable, with later abortions allowed to protect a woman’s physical or mental health. Opponents of the proposed amendment say it goes too far and could lead to unlimited and unregulated abortions in Arizona. Supporters say it would protect abortion access free from political interference.
Abortion is currently legal for the first 15 weeks of pregnancy in Arizona.
Colorado’s top election official confirmed in May that a measure to enshrine abortion protections in the state constitution, along with requirements that Medicaid and private health insurers cover abortion, made the ballot for the fall election.
Supporters said they gathered nearly double the required number of signatures needed.
Amending the state constitution requires the support of 55% of voters.
Abortion is already legal at all stages of pregnancy in Colorado.
The state Supreme Court ruled in April that a measure to legalize abortion until viability could go on the ballot despite a legal challenge from the state. Attorney General Ashley Moody had argued that there are differing views on the meaning of “viability” and that some key terms in the proposed measure are not properly defined.
To pass, the measure needs support from at least 60% of voters, a high threshold that supporters say they are hopeful of reaching after collecting nearly a million signatures on the petition to get it on the ballot.
Abortion is currently illegal in Florida after the first six weeks of pregnancy under a law that took effect May 1.
Maryland voters also will be asked this year to enshrine the right to abortion in the state’s constitution. Abortion is already allowed in Maryland until viability.
The Nevada Secretary of State’s office announced in June that a ballot question to enshrine abortion rights in the state constitution has met all of the requirements to appear in front of voters in November.
Under the amendment, abortion access for the first 24 weeks of pregnancy — or later to protect the health of the pregnant person — would be protected. To change the constitution, voters would need to approve it in both 2024 and 2026.
American Dollar Exchange Rate